Dell Tunes Precision Workstations for Optimal Performance

Calling the delivery of Intel
Corp.'s Nehalem dynamically scalable
microarchitecture an opportune time to refresh its workstation line, Dell is shipping a trio of new Precision
workstations tuned to the performance needs of engineering, digital content
creation, biosciences, exploration, economic modeling and risk analysis
applications.

The new Dell Precision T7500, T5500 and T3500 tower
workstations are among the first to ship with the Intel Xeon 5500 "Nehalem"
microarchitecture, delivering up to a 90-percent performance improvement for
multi-threaded digital content creation applications compared with previous
generations. Key to the performance gains of the new line are support for
Intel's Direct Cache Access and QuickPath interconnect
technologies, which provide point-to-point, high-speed links to distributed
shared memory, unleashing the parallel processing performance of the new
Nehalem microarchitecture, according to Intel officials. In addition, the new
systems take advantage of new graphics processing unit (GPU) advancements, also
tied to the Nehalem release, to further optimize their performance on
graphics-intensive 3-D applications, notes Rick Perez, product marketing
manager for Dell Precision.

"The combination of the new architecture and the
availability of next-generation graphic offerings makes it a really good time
to refresh the platforms," Perez says.

As part of the announcement, Dell and its application
partners have tested and certified compatibility for 90 applications on the new
workstations, including leading MCAD, engineering and construction
applications. For instance, Dell is reporting up to 82% better performance with
Dassault Systemes' CATIA
MCAD package on the new Nehalem-based workstations compared to previous Precision
generations. Officials also claim up to 350% more memory bandwidth on the Dell
Precision T7500 and T5500 with dual processors using the SiSoft Sandra 2009
Bandwidth benchmark test compared to previous Precision workstations.

The line, available immediately, includes:

Dell Precision T7500: The top-of-the-line model, supporting
up to two quad-core processors, up to 192GB of three-channel DDR3 ECC memory
and up to 1066 or 1333MHz, dual native Gen 2 PCIe x 16 graphics slots with up
to 450 watts. The system also supports NVIDIA SLI technology, for scaling
graphics performance by combining multiple NVIDIA graphics solutions in an
SLI-certified motherboard. Pricing for this model starts at $1,800.

Dell Precision T5500: The sweet spot for most CAD users,
this small footprint system offers dual socket Intel Xeon performance with
memory capacity of up to 72GB and graphics slots that scale up to 300 watts.
Pricing starts at $1,620.

Dell Precision T3500: The base model in the series, with
pricing starting at $999, features up to 24GB of DDR3 ECC memory and an
integrated memory controller.

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